ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997 TAG: 9703260070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
The National Cancer Advisory Board will weigh the value of yearly tests for women in their 40s.
Pressure is building on the federal government to end the current confusion about the value of regular mammograms for women in their 40s.
A committee of the National Cancer Advisory Board meets in Washington today to reconsider its earlier recommendation that the decision be left up to each woman and her doctor. An announcement is expected Thursday.
One possibility is a proposal that universal screening be limited to women over 45, while women from 40 to 45 receive improved educational materials to help them make their own choice.
The mammography controversy involves only women between 40 and 49. Screening is universally recommended for women above 50. Women younger than 40 do not need periodic mammograms.
Only a month ago, the advisory board announced that it was unable to issue definitive guidelines for women ages 40 to 49. They said it was not clear that the benefits of screening for breast cancer, a leading cause of death among women, outweigh its drawbacks for that age group.
The board's announcement merely intensified the debate.
On Saturday, the American Cancer Society recommended that women begin annual mammograms at age 40 - a step up from its previous guidance of a breast checkup every one or two years during those years.
On Monday, the American College of Radiology also endorsed annual mammograms from age 40 on, saying it can increase the chance of detecting fast-growing cancers at an ``earlier, more curable stage.''
Dr. Lawrence Bassett of Los Angeles, chairman of the radiologists' breast-screening task force, said recent Swedish trials provide ``unquestionable proof'' that annual mammograms ``can reduce breast cancer deaths among women in their 40s by at least 25 percent, perhaps as much as 45 percent.''
Not all cancer experts agree.
``We will not be able to say the exact age at which a woman should start mammography,'' Barbara Rimer, chairman of the advisory board, said after its Feb. 25-26 meeting.
``There is a great tendency, particularly among younger women, to overestimate both the probability of getting breast cancer and the benefit of mammography,'' said Rimer, director of Cancer Prevention, Detection and Control Research at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
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